Lees, Holroyd, Wolstenholme and Pritchard; you might think it sounds like a legal firm in, say, Oldham, Lancashire. And you’d be right about the Oldham part. John Lees (guitar), Les Holroyd (bass), St

IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE

Grave illness and a broken heart have tested Stephen Dale Petit – but the bluesman tells us that completing his Clapton-bolstered masterpiece, Be The Love , is all that matters

EXCLUSIVE

Barclay James Harvest ’s co-founding singer and guitarist John Lees has been leading his iteration of the prog overlords since the band split into two separate entities in 1998. With a new studio album – their first in 12 years – having recently landed, Lees joins Prog to chew over the band’s legacy, the perils of playing to 250,000 fans by the Berlin Wall, and why the door has seemingly been left ajar for future live dates and, whisper it, even a reunion.

Music was an all-consuming escape. Now, every song he writes is a love song At 16, I was just starting to take writing seriously. I became obsessed with lyricism and writing lines and my heroes were a